Dayton Daily News, Ohio, Amelia Robinson column

July 29--I can't lie. I was ticked.

There I was in the middle of a text when the Dayton parking enforcement came a knocking on my window.

In an effort to avoid the whole texting while driving thing, I had pulled up to a parking meter in downtown Dayton to return a colleague's pressing message.

My text message was going to take a second to send -- but it was a second too long for the overly eager parking enforcement officer at my driver's side window.

"You can't stand here," she told me and noted that I had not paid the meter.

She was correct.

I was technically wrong for stopping to send a text message without plugging the meter, but come on....

I hadn't fed the quarter- (or credit-card) hungry beast inside of the meter, but neither had anyone else as there were NO cars at any of the meters parked on the street or the one around the corner from it.

In other words, there was no rush for parking spaces in downtown Dayton that day.

There were available meters as far as the eye could see.

For transparency, my disdain for parking enforcement officers is well-documented and predated that encounter.

I don't hate them personally -- I suppose they are decent people -- I simply hate what they do and what they represent.

In my experience what they do is bother people trying to conduct business or pleasure downtown and give those people a reason not to come back.

Police department officials would tell you and have told me that parking enforcement aides conduct an important service.

They keep it moving.

Based on figures the city provided, they have been busy.

Parking tickets resulted in $566,541 in revenue in 2011, $573,837 in 2012 and $465,491 last year. This year, the city says $224, 519 was raised through June.

The bulk of the tickets were issued by parking enforcement aides.

The city currently has five aides who are paid about $40,377 annually, excluding fringe benefits. The pay rate is $19.41 an hour.

With salary, fringes and health insurance costs, the total budget for the five aides is $286,645 for 2014. The department cost was 291,363 in 2013.

Salary and fringe benefits costs between 2011 and this June was nearly $1.1 million.

They work in a relatively small area.

There are 1,300 parking meters in the 40-block area the Downtown Dayton Partnership considers the "Prime Office District." Rates start at 25 cents for 30 minutes and go up from there depending on location.

The area is bounded by the Great Miami River to the north, the railroad overpass to the south, Perry Street to the west and Patterson Boulevard to the east, according to the nonprofit partnership.

The city says parking enforcement aides are paid hourly and receive no incentives for writing more tickets.

Parking meters are intended for short stops.

There are 2,500 spaces in surface parking lots and another 11,200 spaces in garages, according to the partnership.

Officials say these aides prevent motorists from hogging sought-after parking spaces.

As someone who frequents downtown and lives very, very close to it, that has not been my experience.

The issue is not hogging, but "vulturing."

I have watched parking enforcement officers stalk motorists as if they were small rodents.

It has made for a very unwelcoming experience in Dayton.

In an age when people are accustomed to simply driving up to where they want to go and getting out of the car, I don't see what advantages parking meters offer as they are used in Dayton.

Yes, many cities use parking meters, but many of the cities are not in Dayton's position.

There is a much higher demand for meters in those towns.

As the city continues to rebuild, re-position and re-brand itself, it would be nice if parking and parking enforcement were made part of decisions.

There has got to be a better way to offer parking that won't give people a reason to avoid coming downtown.

What do you think? How would you like to see parking enforcement handled in downtown Dayton?

Contact this blogger at [email protected] or Twitter.com/DDNSmartMouth

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